Alex Poythress (22) and Kentucky freshmen James Young and Julius Randle.

Photo: Tom Pennington, Getty Images

Alex Poythress (22) and Kentucky freshmen James Young and Julius...

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Kansas freshman NCAA college basketball player Andrew Wiggins leaves a news conference at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., Monday, March 31, 2014. Wiggins announced he would be entering the NBA draft. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

The Fab Five came onto the national basketball landscape like a thunder dunk. You had to notice the five baggy-shorts-wearing freshmen starters from Michigan who made their way to the national championship game.

It was 1992 and people couldn't believe a team with five players just out of high school could find a way to play for the title. They did, the first such group to do it. Many said it would never happen again.

It took 22 years but another group of teenagers have played their way to a chance to win it all.

Kentucky, which plays Connecticut in the title game Monday night, starts five freshmen. They don't have a nickname like Michigan did. They just got on a roll in the NCAA Tournament as the Fab Five did a generation ago.

They eventually lost to Duke by 20 points in the championship game but nobody watching then will forget the Fab Five for a lot of reasons.

"We were so much either loved or hated and judged by the way we looked," Rose said for a 15th anniversary story. "Back then, it was 'Oh, look at these hoodlums, these thugs, these gangsters,' because we had big shorts, because we had black shoes and black socks."

The Wildcats, who come in with a 29-10 record, including 12-6 in the SEC, know all about the Fab Five. Only three players on the Kentucky roster were born when the Fab Five played its first game, but the documentary has become a TV staple.

Aaron Harrison, who has hit big three-pointers for Kentucky in the three games leading to Monday night, is an unabashed fan of the Fab Five.

"That is my favorite documentary. I've watched it 10 times," Harrison said. "It's amazing what they did for the college game. It was great that they showed it doesn't matter how old you are but how you're playing together."